Senior Counsel and former presidential candidate Paul Muite has said Kenyan athletes are better at marketing Kenya than ambassadors in diplomatic missions.
“People in Barbados hold Kenya in high esteem, very elating, because of our athletes, it’s all they know about Kenya. “They take everything at the Olympics,” they keep saying. Our athletes better Ambassadors marketing Kenya than the ones we pay in Embassies. Appreciation?” Muite tweeted on Tuesday.
“Sports diplomacy. In the future, this needs to be considered as a pillar of Kenya’s foreign policy. @ForeignOfficeKE should be a bit more imaginative regarding how Kenya could influence her external environment,” Monica Nganga retweeted.
“The paradox is, we cherish political losers with state appointments and vilify our Athletic losers without regard to the role they have played in marketing Kenya… leave alone milking the athletic winners dry via dubious deals!” @japhet_ombui replied.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in 2019-20 financial year allocated Sh15.5 billion for its operations, an amount CS Monica Juma says is not enough.
Appearing before the committee in February this year, CS Juma raised concern over the allocation, saying it is not enough to keep the ministry’s operations running. The ministry had requested for Sh37.8 billion.
“You cannot prosecute foreign policies from your headquarters because there are things that my ambassadors would do and there are others that I need to do myself; some of the things that are likely to be affected by this under-funding include travel, publishing, conferencing and missions which are seen as non-core,” she said.
The Defence and Foreign Relations Committee, however, told the ministry to cut travel expenditure in order to operate within the allocated budget.
Sportsmen and women have, however, been neglected, with late payments and poor facilities despite flying Kenya’s flag on the international stage. Some of the popular sports Kenyans are known for are athletics, rugby, women volleyball and cricket.
Kenya Sevens survived relegation from the World Sevens Series in the 2018-19 season following financial problems at the Kenya Rugby Union. This was despite the government committing to support the team.
SPORTS DIPLOMACY
Sports diplomacy is a tool used by some countries in their foreign policy, and involves the use of sport as a means to influence diplomatic, social, and political relations. It may transcend cultural differences and bring people together to enhance people-to-people relations. It also offers an opportunity to market a country’s tourism destinations.
